The Public Health Commission, made up of the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities, has agreed to bring forward to the end of this month the start of the covid and flu vaccination campaign for those over 60 years of age, pregnant women, people with immunosuppression and professionals health and social health, among others. This advancement will not occur at the same time in all communities. There will be regions that will begin the last week of this month and others during October, depending on their organization.
Pending the publication of the new strategy, what is clear is that those over 80 will be the first to start receiving the covid vaccine, along with the flu vaccine. Also residents in senior and disability centers. They are always the priority groups, but now even more so with the incidence of covid on the rise (137 cases per 100,000 inhabitants). In fact, those responsible for public health insist that the "active recruitment" of people aged 80 or over and health and social health personnel must be reinforced.
The objectives for vaccination against flu and covid for the 2023-2024 season are to achieve or exceed vaccination coverage of 75% in the elderly and in health and social health personnel, as well as exceed 60% in pregnant women and in people with health conditions. risk. These objectives are in line with those established for flu vaccination by the World Health Organization and the European Commission to achieve coverage of at least 75% in people over 65 years of age and increase vaccination coverage in health professionals. and risk groups.
In addition to these groups and those over 60, the chronically ill, health professionals (including pharmacy workers) and social health workers, people with direct occupational exposure to animals or their secretions on farms or poultry, swine or pig farms have also been included. of minks or wildlife (birds, wild boars or mustelids), such as ranchers, veterinarians, farm workers, hunters, ornithologists, environmental agents, zoo personnel, etc. The purpose is to reduce the opportunity for concomitant infection of human and avian or porcine viruses, reducing the possibility of recombination or genetic exchange between both viruses.
What covid vaccine will be given in this campaign? The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recommend that the vaccines to be administered in the next 2023-2024 season be monovalent against the XBB subvariant of the omicron strain, preferably XBB. 1.5, which ensures protection against circulating strains of SARS-CoV-24.
On September 1, Europe approved Comirnaty XBB.1.5, the company's third adaptation of this vaccine, and is intended to respond to new variants of the virus. The vaccine is suitable for both adults and children and infants over six months.
The problem is whether it will arrive in time and in sufficient quantities to European countries. If this were not the case, Spain has sufficient doses of the Spanish vaccine, Hipra, as a booster dose in people aged 16 and over who have previously received an mRNA vaccine against covid. This S protein vaccine of the alpha and beta variants of SARS-CoV-2 with SQBA2 adjuvant has demonstrated neutralization capacity against SARS-CoV-2 beta, delta and omicron BA.1 strains.
